Desert Golf and the Water Question

Desert courses from Arizona to the Emirates use seed strains, treatment plants and tightly mown islands of green inside wasteland rough. Shadow Creek showed in 1989 how far money and earthmoving could go, and TPC Scottsdale and PGA West made desert golf a television staple.

Critics point to water budgets in arid regions, and modern design answers with fewer irrigated acres and native areas. The style remains a defining postwar chapter of American golf..